Marketplacer raises $11 million, led by rich lister Gerry Ryan

Mr Wyatt founded the company in 2007 with childhood friend Sam Salter when the pair created BikeExchange, before expanding its focus to become The Exchange Group.

Marketplacer's core product is an e-commerce platform for online marketplaces that connects customers to a range of opportunities to buy or rent various products. It promises to help wannabe Airbnbs or Ubers begin operating without having to build their own technology.

Rapid growth

Since last year's raise Mr Wyatt said the company had recorded triple-digit revenue growth, which he expects to continue this year and next.

"With the seeds we have in the ground I find it really hard to see how we wouldn't be growing at that rate next year too," he said.

"We have two parts of the business and one is an investment side where we own shares and portions of marketplaces. This chunk of money is going towards acquiring or doing deals with marketplaces, or content-based businesses, where we think there are good opportunities."

Marketplacer is in the final stages of completing an acquisition and is also taking a 50 per cent stake in another Australian marketplace.

Now, Mr Wyatt and Mr Salter have four other marketplaces within their portfolio – TiniTrader, House of Home, Outdoria and Tixstar – and have made investments in others.

But the business's main focus remains selling the technology behind its marketplaces to hopefuls that are wanting to create the next Redbubble or Etsy, or businesses that are looking for a better way to connect their community of customers.

"We've signed some leading brands behind that side of the business," Mr Wyatt said, but he was unable to disclose customer names at this stage.

"The second reason we've raised capital is to further expand Marketplacer as a platform business ... We're not a start-up boot-strapping non-scalable tech, we've got robust systems and processes around customer service and creating a community."

US operations

It took the co-founders almost five years to sign up 400 bike dealers to BikeExchange in Australia, but it has achieved this in the US in just over a year.

​Marketplacer's five e-commerce websites now receive more than 3 million visitors per month, up 133 per cent since last July and represent 2203 retailers and delivers $600 million in leads per year.

The company also owns the CyclingTips news website and retail store that has a strong following in the road cycling community.

"We saw a genuine need for people who wanted to create marketplaces. They don't have to be technologists, they need to be community managers, so we wanted to de-risk people investing into marketplaces," Mr Wyatt said.

"If you wanted to write an essay you wouldn't go and create Microsoft Word. So if you want to create a marketplace, use Marketplacer."